22/02/15 - Lands End - Speci

Weight - 91lb 9oz
Catch - 13 Carp, 1 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather - Frosty start, wet, cold and windy.
Match - Winter League rd 4 - 5th out of 34, 1st out of 6 section

It’s the 4^th round of the Winter League and the weather should be improving, however after a week of relatively mild conditions it was back to scrapping the ice off the windscreen this morning. I was also left wondering whether I would regret not packing the ice breaker. Fortunately Mike had the aerators on overnight, so no ice but circulating all that cold water could have been the reason why the silvers didn’t feed in any numbers.

It was back to a random draw and looking at the league tables I couldn’t afford to drop any more points and was quiet relieved to see 31 staring back at me. After all the ice this morning the weather forecast was for a strong southerly wind and rain to come in by lunch time. Unfortunately the forecast was spot on, but at least with the wind blowing directly from behind I could reach the island at 16m without too many dramas.

For company I had Chris Fox on p29 (I swear he talks himself into a poor draw) and Dale Howson to my right on p32.

After feeding some pellet/groundbait at 14m left and pellet/caster 14m to my right, plus some caster/prawn at 6m, I started straight across by the island (4x10 > .12 > 16 B911) with 6mm expander and landed a fish after 10mins. Tony opposite on p34 had already landed 2 and was playing his 3^rd!

 

I was getting a few liners, but couldn’t hook a fish properly and landed a foul hooker 30mins later. Fishing half depth didn’t help either, so after persevering for a further 30mins decided it was time to back off and try the deep water rig, where hopefully a few skimmers had settled. Well the deep water swims proved to be very difficult, hooking 4 carp, but only landing 1 foulhooker. There were no skimmers and the only silvers I could catch was a tench and a tiny roach, both on maggot.

 

My 6m “perch” line didn’t produce, so that was converted to a meat line, hoping for a few late carp, which never turned up. I had also tried the margin by the p30 pallet, but again not a bite, even on maggot, which just left the island.

 

With 2 hours to go, I still only had 3 carp which was leading the section, whilst Dale had 2. Fortunately a few carp on Tony’s side of the island got bored and moved round. Over the next 90mins I landed a further 10 all on 6mm expander, which was just as well as Dale had also started to catch. All the fish except for 1 came from the point of the island, which hadn’t been fed. The area which had been fed with 4s only produced 1 carp.

 

A comfortable section win and 2^nd on the lake behind Tony, but everyone was glad to hear the all out, since the weather was appalling. I had considered putting up an umbrella, but decided against it as I looked around to see Triggers (p28) wrapped around him after a particularly strong gust of wind.

 

1st 213- 1 - Tony Rixon - p34

2nd 110- 0 - Paul Elmes - p15

3rd 96- 9 - Nick Chedzoy - p19

4th 92-10 - Steve Seagar - p11

5th 91- 9 - Ken Rayner - p31

6th 67- 5 - Gary O'Shea - p13

 

Silvers

1st 10-10 - Russ Peck - p42

2nd 9-11 - Dave Hodgson - p5

3rd 8-12 - Gordon Cannings - p3

4th 7- 9 - Dan White - p22

5th 7- 3 - Mike Duckett - p68

6th 6-12 - Nick Chedzoy

21/02/15 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 16lb 11oz (11lb 6oz - silvers)
Catch - 2 Carp, 27 Perch, 8 Roach, 2 F1s
Weather - Cold start. Mostly sunny, cold westerly breeze
Match - 2nd out of 8 - silvers

After having last weekend off attending a wedding in Poole, I was looking forward to getting back out on the bank. The weather over the last week has been milder and typically come the weekend its cold again, but I was still expecting a few fish to feed.

Into the bucket and out came peg 1, which I wasn't happy about. Although the peg has produced recently, the forecast strong wind would be blowing straight down the lake into me, which meant a difficult day was likely. Opposite on p24 was Brian Hadley and Dave Wescott on p22.

Initially started on corn, then expander looking for a carp, fishing as long as I could along the end bank, but after 45mins it became obvious there wasn't any around or at least I couldn't present a bait properly to them.

Micros and groundbait at 13m in open water, only produced a couple of roach and perch. In the end, I spent most of my time fishing by the right hand tree where I had been feeding caster, catching mostly perch up to 1.5lb on maggot.

When the wind did drop I caught 2 F1s in quick succession from the bottom of the far shelf on 4mm expander where I had been pinging 4s. Unfortunately the wind picked up again, which wasn't frustrating!

At least I had a few bites and from what I could see not many silvers had been caught so was hopeful of a pick up. As expected the more sheltered end of the lake produced the best weights. Fortunately although Nigel managed 23lb of skimmers & perch, he came 2nd overall, which meant I picked up by de-fault.

1st 64- 6 - Rod Wootton - p13
2nd 46- 2 - Nigel Bartlett - p15
3rd 30- 9 - Mike West - p6
4th 28- 8 - Ray White - p11
5th 16-11 - Ken Rayner - p1

Silvers
1st 23- 8 - Nigel Bartlett - p15
2nd 11- 6 - Ken Rayner - p1

08/02/15 - Lands End - Johns

Weight - 6lb 12oz
Catch - 1 Carp, 2 Perch, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Iced over. Cold bright and sunny
Match - Winter League rd 3 - 21st out of 35, 5th out of 6 section

Getting really bored of this weather now and by the looks of it Lands End wasn't the only fishery to suffer at the hands of a week which saw most nights below freezing. Half the field in one winter league blanked, so the fact only 2 blanked at Lands End meant at least there was some bites to be had, but with a 15lb average it fished harder than I have known it for a couple years. The good news however is at least the remaining 3 matches should be in milder condition and the fish will be wanting a munch soon - fingers crossed.

As for today, it was the 3rd round of the winter league and the ice wasn’t too thick, but decided to put the start time back 30mins to allow time for some ice breaking. The rotation put me on Johns No3 Lake and there was only 2 pegs I didn’t fancy, 45 & 61, so was disappointed to find myself on 45. Nick Ewers came 2nd in section from the peg in the last round, but its normally a peg to avoid, particularly if 46 is in, which it was.

I managed to break myself a decent channel towards the island and was quite pleased with my efforts. 3 rigs were set up with .12 bottom > 18 B911 and .10 bottom > 20 silverfish bottom. The third rig was to fish tight to the island.

For company I had Kev Molton to my left on 46 and Dan White opposite on p66. After sprinkling some micros a metre off the island, I started on 4mm expander. After 15mins I started getting a few liners and promptly hooked 6.5lb carp in the tail. I know it was 6.5lb because it was the only carp landed.

I had fed some black lake and pinkie at 6m, but that didn’t produce a bite, so started to feed meat over the line, more in hope than expectation I might tempt a carp towards the end of the match. I didn’t – no real surprise, but at least I gave myself a chance.

Fishing tight to the island didn’t produce a bite either and as the ice melted a little I could fish further to my right along the island, which produced a small skimmer on maggot. I even tried casting the lead & corn into the gap, but a sheet of ice came down the lake and plugged the gap, so I only managed 20mins fishing there.

With 75mins to go I did hook another carp over the micros & 4s that I had been trickling in all match. The fish felt like it was hooked properly, but for what ever reason the hook pulled as I was shipping back. I can only think the fish was very light hooked and it may have cost me 2nd in section.

Not a great day. Kev managed 3lb 4oz and Dan had 2lb 7oz, so not many feeding fish in the area.  

1st 83- 9 - Nick Chedzoy - p31
2nd 68- 7 - Ian Brownsey - p33
3rd 66-14 - Tony Rixon - p62
4th 45- 7 - Adrian Jefferies - p70
5th 28- 8 - Steve Seagar - p11
6th 24-14 - John Bradford - p41

Silvers
1st 11- 8 - Rod Wootton - p19
2nd 9-14 - Gary O'Shea - p37
3rd 9-10 - Bob Gullick - p28
4th 9- 4 - Mike Duckett - p36
5th 8- 5 - Gordon Cannings - p20
6th 8- 1 - Chris Kon - p42

01/02/15 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 46lb 6oz
Catch - 8 Carp, 2 Perch
Weather - Cold and mostly sunny. Fortunately sheltered from the wind.
Match - Open - 3rd out of 8

We had 12 booked in for todays match, the cold weather obviously put off one person, someone had to visit their Nan - really James? As for Mike West, senility is obviously catching up with him. For some reasons he thought Sundays match was cancelled, rather than Saturdays. As a consequence he went to Summerhayes, taking Tom Mangnall with him, which just left the 8 of us.

There was some debate about which pegs to put in, because the carp would move into the empty spaces. With the NW wind which has been blowing all week I didn't fancy the surprise form pegs of 1 or 24, so was happy to be on p11, which was also sheltered from the wind. In fact I was getting quite warm in the sun, taking off my coat and woolly hat.

Opposite on p13 was Dave 'Beany' Wescott and John Bradford was to my left on p6. I ended up starting 5mins late, mainly because I had to set up a number of rigs to cover the 'deep hole' at 16m by the rope and rigs to cover the rest of the peg.

After feeding micros & maggot at 14m towards the aerator, I started with corn in the deep hole. Nick Duckett had caught well from this area last week, however after 30mins and no bites, only a couple of liners, it was time to feed, again pellet & maggot. Unfortunately, I only had 1 carp from this swim at 3/4 depth on maggot, I tried pinging 4s over the top and even maggot in the last hour to try and pull in some fish from the other side of the rope.

A switch to the 14m line (HB Frostie 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet) produced a carp, followed by another 10mins later. By toss potting micros and maggot, I caught another 3 before the swim died.

I had fed caster by the p10 pallet, but this only produced 1 lost perch and with half the match gone I was now struggling for a bite. Looking down the lake, John had caught a few silvers and Andy Hembrow had caught a few from p1. Dave had 1 carp and a couple of silvers, whilst Russ Peck on p16 had roughly the same as me, but apparently Nick Duckett was catching well on p18, which meant we were all fishing for 2nd.

Since I couldn't get a bite anywhere I fed another swim towards the end, which produced a carp almost immediately and then a decent perch, but nothing else.

I just got the feeling the fish had backed off beyond pole range, so quickly set up a lead rod and cast further along the end bank. 20mins later I had 2 carp, 1 squeaker and a proper one of 10lb, both on corn. But again no further fish.

By the all out, Russ thought he had 45lb, whilst I felt I had 40lb. As it happened we both had 8 carp, but Russ had a couple decent F1s which made the difference.

Overall considering the conditions, the lake fished reasonably well, but needed a couple more anglers to fill in the blank spaces. Well done to Nick for winning very convincingly.

1st 116- 4 - Nick Duckett -p18
2nd 47- 2 - Russ Peck - p16
3rd 46- 6 - Ken Rayner - p11
4th 27-14 - Andy Hembrow - p1
5th 13- 5 - Dave Wescott - p13

Silvers
1st 10- 8 - Nick Duckett - p18
2nd 5-12 - John Bradford - p6
3rd 5- 6 - Andy Hembrow - p1